Being called fat by a morbidly obese friend who was about to lose a toe to diabetes wasn’t the only slapshot of reality that comedian Carlos Mencia got in the last few years.

It did lead to the most visible change in the transformed comedian’s life, though.

Mencia, 44, has shed about 70 pounds in little more than a year, making him look almost completely like a new man. Amarillo audiences can catch his “New Territory” tour Saturday in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts.

The weight loss came in the wake of years of, er, heavy criticism in the comedy world, beginning with being called out as a joke-stealer by Joe Rogan in 2007 and culminating in two 2010 interviews on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, in which he admitted to absorbing material from other comics.

To be fair, other high-profile comics have faced similar criticisms, including Robin Williams and Dane Cook, but Mencia’s formerly combative public image helped make the charges stick.

That’s part of why Mencia said he’s a different man now.

“Four years ago ... I would have said there’s nothing wrong with me. Now, I get it. I’m OK with people saying, ‘I hear you’re not funny,’” he said.

“If, at the end of the day, you don’t have a good time at my show, you’ll get a refund. I’m not about taking people’s money if they don’t have a good time.”

Mencia said he was at “a crossroads.”

“You can be mad at the world right now and take it out on everybody else and use that anger ... and just get [filtered word] off and get even angrier, or I can choose to be humbled by this and see things in a different way.

“I chose not to be angry, bitter, and to take all my pain and agony and use that to (expletive deleted) on the world, so to speak,” he said. “I’ve seen that before, and I don’t like it.

“I just don’t live in that negative world, and I’m glad I made that choice. I’m glad for where I’m at and glad I learned my lessons because I’m a much better person than I was. ... As painful as those times were — the dark thoughts, the suicidal thoughts, the murderous thoughts — for somebody who lived life with the integrity that I lived it — never had a drink, never smoked, never did any drugs — for somebody who does that, for their comedy to be ripped to shreds in such a simple way of me supposedly talking about whatever I talked about, it was life-changing.

“Here I am, through the eye of the storm. I’m a different person for it, and a much better person, if you ask me and a bunch of other people, and a lot of my fans.”

Mencia said his weight loss has also led to more exposure in his act.

“When I go up on stage and I talk about why I lost the weight and I talk about these moments and how people look at me differently or what I’m going through, I guess I’m showing a vulnerability on stage that I never did before or never had to,” he said.

“After doing comedy 25 years, you have to evolve, not only physically, but mentally, psychically. It’s all of it put together,” Mencia said.

“It’s a change and an evolution in who I am and who I wish to be. It’s a very fundamental change.”